LYNDHURST With the unexpected but welcome arrival of about $1.4 million in Estate Tax funds, city officials have scrapped all proposals and legislation for any local income tax increases — at least for this year.

Council went so far as to repeal the ordinance that would have rescinded the 50-percent tax credit for residents who worked outside the city, in case a half-percent local income tax hike didn’t pass in May.

For now, there will be neither, Mayor Joe Cicero announced at the Jan. 21 City Council meeting, saying he had “some good news, some more good news, and some bad news.”

Cicero said he was “blown away” when he received initial word Jan. 14 from the Cuyahoga County Auditor’s Office that the city was getting more than $1 million from the Estate Tax, which was phased out at the end of last year, although some cases remain tied up in Probate Court.

“It’s a very welcome surprise, at a very good time,” Cicero told City Council.

The city has since received a check for $1 million, and the rest is on the way.

“With the money in hand, we sat down and did a lot of figuring,” Cicero said, “and I decided that I cannot, in good conscience, go forward with the previous proposals when we can balance the budget through mid-2015.”

The Estate Tax qualifies as a financial anomaly, since the city received $92,000 from that source last year and $200,000 the year before that.

For that reason, Cicero believes the city will eventually be looking at needing more money again, in the range of $1 million-$1.8 million.

“This exemplifies what I have been saying from the beginning, both financially and in terms of transparency,” said Cicero, who favored rescinding the 50-percent tax credit because it could conceivably be reinstated at some point, as has been done in Lyndhurst twice in the past.

“Our work is not done,“ he said of the city’s overall financial picture. “I always like to have a two-to-three-year outlook on the city’s operational budget and five years on the capital budget.”

Vice Mayor Patrick Ward, who chairs the Finance Committee, called it a “very opportune” development for the city.

“It’s a relief to us and to the residents who have voiced their concerns from both a financial and city services aspect,” Ward said.

Councilman Joe Gambatese, who along with former Vice Mayor David Frey voted against rescinding the tax credit in July, said it comes as good news that, barring a catastrophe, a balanced budget can be almost guaranteed as a result of the “windfall” from last year’s Estate Tax.

“There were a lot of people out there who wanted a more balanced approach,” Gambatese said. “Now, a citizens’ group has been formed with a lot of business people who really want to help the city.”

And now that city officials have some time and aren’t working “under the gun” with a looming deadline, Gambatese said he plans to recommend to the mayor and council that they request a performance audit through the state of Ohio, “so we can get an opinion from them.”

It’s part of a program the state Auditor’s Office now offers, although there might be a charge for the work, Gambatese noted.

“It may come back that the city is running a very tight ship,” Gambatese said, “or they may give us some areas where we need to cut. It could give us something firm to stand on in 2015, now that we have some time.”

As for an effort to gather petitions seeking a referendum repeal of the ordinance that would have rescinded the 50-percent tax credit, Cicero noted that’s now a “moot point.”

One of the organizers of the referendum petition drive, Tim Toma, said he’d received a good response from the community.

“It’s amazing how once we start circulating petitions, suddenly $1 million miraculously shows up,” Toma said the day after council repealed the ordinance.

Ward called Toma’s contentions “rude, condescending and very telling of what we’re dealing with. They don’t look, they don’t think, and so they don’t know how detailed our financial reporting is.”

Cicero stated the Estate Tax proceeds amounted to “completely and utterly new money that we didn’t know about.”

He added that the city and Finance Director Mary Kovalchik have won numerous state awards and recognition from the state for its record-keeping.

And he worries the city’s reputation may be damaged by contentions that officials are somehow withholding information from opposition groups.

Nearly 120 pages of documents later, Cicero said the city has fully complied with all public records requests put forth by opponents, and claims to the contrary are “outrageous.”

Cicero also takes exception to Toma’s earlier contention city officials may be “flying by the seat of their pants” in their earlier efforts to raise local revenues to counteract state budget cuts.

“Mr. Toma and Mr. Gambatese have a way of bending the media’s ear, filling it with comments that are either misrepresented or completely untrue,” Cicero said. “They believe the old adage that perception becomes reality, that if you say it loud and long enough it must be true.”

Law Director Paul Murphy said Toma actually made two separate public records requests, one on Dec. 5 and another Jan. 11. Murphy said he sent 11 emails to Toma Jan. 2, and further notified him some of the documents he requested were only available in hard-copy form, at a total cost of $5.95, or 5 cents a page.

As of Jan. 22, Toma said he was still in the process of looking over the 119 pages of documents from the city, although he’s still looking for more multi-year projections on revenues and expenses.

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